As dusk falls over the Korean front, two men of a patrol from the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, move quietly forward on their raids against the Chinese Communists entrenched in the opposite hillside in Korea, 25/05/1953. Source: News Limited

WHEN Japan was defeated in 1945 its colony on the Korean peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel just north of the modern day South Korean capital, Seoul.

Forces of the Soviet Union occupied the northern half and the United States assumed responsibility for the south.

Tensions along the "border" increased in the late 1940s and finally on June 25, 1950 North Korean forces, backed by China and the Soviet Union, marched across the line triggering all out war.

The Soviets had boycotted the United Nations Security Council so without its veto a motion calling for a UN sanctioned military response was passed by the Security Council and 340,000 UN backed troops led by the US joined the war on the South Korean side.

Three years later when an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953 an estimated 2.5 million people were dead including 33,700 American soldiers and 138,000 of their South Korean allies. More than 1100 British troops had been killed along with 340 Australians and 516 Canadians and many more from around the world. An estimated two million North Korean and 400,000 South Korean civilians also perished and the line of division remained at the 38th parallel.

Such is the human cost of a war that could be re-ignited by one misstep on either side of the increasingly dangerous four kilometre wide demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

The 1953 armistice agreement signalled an end to hostilities, but the war has technically been running for 63 years.

So if hostilities were to resume then some of those countries involved in the early 1950s might see themselves once again fighting on the Korean peninsula.

It is highly unlikely that the UN Security Council would achieve a fresh mandate to take action against the North, but the Americans have made it clear in recent days that they will act to protect their "treaty allies" and that includes the Republic of Korea.

Flight Lieutenant Ross Coburn of Newcastle and Flight Lieutenant Fred Barnes of Melbourne, the first two RAAF pilots in the Korean War to log 100 combat missions, pictured in 1951.

As a close treaty ally of the US and a participant in the Korean War, Australia would come under enormous pressure to make a contribution to any new conflict between the two Koreas.

With the North threatening that the "moment of explosion is approaching fast," and that war could break out "today or tomorrow", the US has responded by sending aircraft and warships to the peninsula and a land based ballistic missile defence system to its base on the island of Guam about 3000 km away.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Pyongyang to back down from its "dangerous rhetoric."

"We take those threats seriously. We have to take those threats seriously," Hagel said.

The South Korean government has also warned that it will not stand idly by and allow the North to intimidate its people.

The North has been ruled by the Kim dynasty since 1950 and the latest member of the dictatorship, Kim Jong Un, or the "glorious successor" as he is known, has decided to make a name for himself by threatening to destroy the South and to strike the United States with nuclear weapons.

Military analysts do not believe that he has the capacity to carry out such threats, but the fact that he is using such base bullhorn diplomacy has many in the west and in North Korea's closest ally China, deeply concerned.

It is estimated that North Korea could have enough fissile material to build 10 nuclear weapons. The US by comparison has more than 4600 nuclear warheads and a variety of air and sea based delivery systems.

The very public intervention by China to rebuke its neighbour is possibly one of the most worrying developments. In the past China has been able to stay in the shadows and to use its close links with Pyongyang to pressure the regime into backing off.

The fact that it has had to go public with direct threats against its ally means that either China wants to be seen to be more of a global diplomatic player or that its quiet diplomacy has failed to make an impression with the young Mr Kim.

One of Australia's leading China experts, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has ratcheted up the rhetoric against Beijing and its friendship with North Korea.

He told students at Harvard University today (THURS) that Kim Jong Un's appalling statement were "like a re-run of a bad 1930s movie".

"They have nothing to do with the language of 21st century diplomacy by any nation state anywhere in the world today," Rudd said.

He said with friends like North Korea, China did not need enemies. In his strongest language yet he said, "North Korea does enormous damage to China's global diplomatic brand. If you are going to line up friends like North Korea, Bashar Al-Assad, as well as from time to time people from Sudan, China is suffering reputational damage around the world."

A peaceful solution to the Korean impasse rests squarely with Beijing. Only the Chinese can bring the lunatic regime to heel. For the rest of the world the only option is war and that is unthinkable.

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